Tag Archives: readings/research

Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna

Posted on September 29, 2023 | Leave a comment

“Antonio (Lopez de) Santa Anna: (1794-1876) Soldier and several times president of Mexico (1833-36, 1844-45, 1847, 1853-55). He fought on both sides of nearly every issue of the day. He is famous for his glorious victories, including his thwarting of Spain’s attempt to reconquer Mexico (1829), and for his ignominious failures, including his defeat and capture by Sam Houston and San Jacinto in the Texas revolt (1836). When the Mexican War broke out, he contacted President James Polk to broker a peace, but on arriving in Mexico he led Mexican forces against the U.S. (1846-47) and was driven into exile. When Maximilian was made emperor of Mexico, Santa Anna offered his services both to Maximilian and to his opponents; neither side accepted. He lived abroad 1855-74, finally returning to Mexico to die in poverty. See also Alamo, caudillo, La Reforma.”

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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Belo Horizonte

Posted on September 28, 2023 | Leave a comment

“Belo Horizonte: City, eastern Brazil. Capital of Minas Gerais state, it lies on the western slope of the Serra do Espinhaco, at an elevation of 2,811 teen (857 meters). The site was chosen in the late 19th century to accommodate expansions that the former capital could not. Brazil’s first planned city, it was laid out on a radiating pattern following the models of Washington, D.C. and La Plata, Argentina. It is the hub of a large agricultural region and the area’s commercial and industrial center.”

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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Jorge Carrera Andrade

Posted on September 28, 2023 | Leave a comment

“Jorge Carrera Andrade: (1903-1978) Ecuadorian poet and essayist. A well-traveled diplomat and anthropologist. Carrera Andrade reveals in his poetry an intense identification with his native Indian forebears. His first selected edition of verse was Registro del mundo (1940), which was followed by Lugar de origen (1945) and Edades poeticas (1958). In all his work, he employs somewhat impressionistic techniques to evoke very clear images of his native land. Along with other writers of his generation, he pioneered the adaptation of haiku to the Spanish language. An English translation of his Selected Poems (tr H.R. Hays) appeared in 1972; his complete poems in Spanish are published in Obra poetica completa.”

Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.

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William Walker

Posted on September 28, 2023 | Leave a comment

[It may seem unusual to find an Anglo name like William Walker as the header of a post observing Hispanic Heritage Month 2023. If you read on, however, you will see that Walker, a mercenary from the United States, played a substantial role in extending United States influence in Latin America, particularly Nicaragua. I became interested in Walker after seeing Alex Cox’s strange–surreal might be the right word here–film Walker, for which the late great Joe Strummer supplied the music.]

“William Walker: (1824-1960) U.S. military adventurer. Born in Nashville, Tennessee, he moved to California in 1850. His interest in colonizing Baja California developed into a filibustering (insurrection) scheme. He landed at La Paz (1853) and proclaimed Lower California and Sonora an independent republic, but Mexican resistance forced him back to the U.S. In 1855 he sailed to Nicaragua, where he effectively established himself as leader. There, officers of Cornelius Vanderbilt’s Accessory Transit Co. promised him financial assistance in a plot to take the company away from Vanderbilt. Walker seized the company and turned it over to them, then made himself president of Nicaragua (1856). In 1857 Vanderbilt induced five Central American republics to drive walker out. In 1860 he attempted a filibuster in Honduras, where he was captured and executed.”

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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Lake Titicaca

Posted on September 16, 2023 | Leave a comment

“Lake Titicaca: Lake, Peru-Bolivia border. The world’s highest navigable lake, it lies at 12,500 feet (3,810 meters) in the Andes. The second-largest lake of South America, it covers some 3,200 square miles (8,300 square kilometers) and is 120 miles (190 kilometers) long by 50 miles (80 kilometers) wide. A narrow strait separates it into two bodies of water which have 41 islands, some densely populated. The remains of one of the oldest American civilizations have been found in the area. Temple ruins on Titicaca Island mark the spot where the legendary founders of the Inca were sent down to the earth by the sun.”

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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Cultural Literacy: Bolivia

Posted on September 16, 2023 | Leave a comment

Continuing with this blog’s underwhelming–for which I apologize profusely–observance of Hispanic Heritage Month 2023, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Bolivia. This is a full-page document with a reading of four sentences and nine comprehension questions. The asymmetry of this worksheet may require some explanation.

The first sentence in this reading situates Bolivia in continental South America with a series; that series could easily be broken up and turned into four separate, easier-to-use independent clauses. The next sentence is a compound separated by a semicolon. In other words, another sentence you might consider breaking up and turning into two separate independent clauses. The second two sentences are clear in their declarations, and should be easy for emergent readers and English language learners to process. I wrote nine comprehension questions because I decided to take the facts in the reading one at a time, which I suppose is how I imagine readers will take them.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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Gabriela Mistral

Posted on September 16, 2023 | Leave a comment

“Gabriela Mistral originally Luclila Godoy Alcayaga: (1889-1957) Chilean poet. Mistral combined writing with a career as a cultural minister and diplomat, and as a professor in the U.S. Her reputation as a poet was established in 1914 when she won a prize for “Sonetos de la Muerte” (“Sonnets of Death”). Her passionate lyrics, with love of children and of the downtrodden as principal themes, are collected in such volumes as Desolacion (1922), Tala (1938), and Lagar (1954. In 1945 she became the first Latin American woman to win the Nobel Prize.”

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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Bogota

Posted on September 10, 2023 | Leave a comment

“Bogota: city, capital of Colombia. The District Capital area is officially known as Santafe de Bogota. It lies on a plateau east of the Andes, European settlement began in 1538 when Spanish conquistadores overran Bacata, the main seat of the Chibcha Indians; the name was soon corrupted to Bogota, It became the capital of the viceroyalty of New Granada and a center of Spanish colonial power in South America. It was the scene of a revolt against Spanish rule in 1810-11, and Simon Bolivar took the city in 1819. It became the capital of the confederation of Gran Colombia; when that was dissolved in 1830, it remained the capital of New Granada (later, Republic of Colombia). Today Bogota is an industrial, educational, and cultural center.”

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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Immanuel Kant

Posted on July 30, 2023 | Leave a comment

Here is a reading on Immanuel Kant along with its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Over the years, I’ve published a number of documents posts on various figures in western philosophy; at my first posting in New York City, at a school in the South Bronx, I found myself in the company of a student who had improbably–but certainly not implausibly, as he demonstrated with the skill and enthusiasm with which he dealt with these materials–conceived an interest in the major figures in continental philosophy.

In other words, I used these documents once, with one student. It was worth it. But I am under no illusions about the level of demand for this material, which will be low if it exists at all.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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Gordian Knot

Posted on July 27, 2023 | Leave a comment

“Gordian Knot: An intricate problem. Gordias, a peasant, was chosen king of Phyrgia, and dedicated his wagon to Zeus. The wagon yoke was fastened to a pole so cleverly that it was said that whoever undid the knot would reign over the empire or Asia. Alexander cut the know with a single stroke of his sword. Cutting the Gordian knot became proverbial for the decisive, bold completion of a complicated action.”

Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.

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